Officials worry that boycott of exams will affect final year students 

Continued struggle will hamper fresh admissions and affect job opportunities

Students looking for better opportunities abroad will have to delay their plans

HYDERABAD: The suicide of an MCA student, Venugopal Reddy of Lalitha P.G. College near Ghatkesar, triggered yet another postponement of semester examinations of Osmania University.

The semester examinations that were already postponed twice were to begin on Tuesday in 220-odd centres in several districts of Telangana. But emotionally charged students called for boycott of exams throwing cold water on the university’s efforts to streamline the schedule. Already six-weeks have been lost since the university became the focal point of the Telangana agitation. Officials are now worried that the non-cooperation of students will affect the final year students who are eager to finish their courses and move out into the job market.

Though there is no danger of the academic year being declared “zero” year as of now, the continuation of struggle will hamper fresh admissions and affect job opportunities of engineering, MBA, MCA and science students. University rules are clear that students can carry backlogs of odd semesters (first and third semesters) to second and fourth semester exams scheduled to be held in April this year. But for that university needs to conduct the present semester exams.

OU V-C T. Tirupati Rao says that students can save the academic year if they cooperate with the university. The present examinations were supposed to be held from Nov. 25 to Dec. 11, 2009. They were first postponed to Jan. 6 and again rescheduled to be held from Jan. 19 to Feb. 2. If the students fail to write these exams, the academic year will be in danger.

Officials point out that classes for second and final semester were supposed to begin on Dec. 14, 2009, but the situation is that first and third semester exams are yet to begin. There is no chance of conducting all these exams in a short gap as 15 weeks of instruction is must between each semester examination.

Last time, an academic year lost was in 1969 due to Telangana agitation and it took several years to put the academic year back on track. But that loss didn’t affect job opportunities as employment in private sector was almost nil and government recruitment was stretched to compensate the loss. Now thousands of final year students will lose out as the abundant employment opportunities in the private sector will be grabbed by other State students. A few more thousands looking for better opportunities abroad will have to delay their plans.